


Divergence

by Ishimaru_Asuka



Series: Sneak Peeks - 'The Untold Stories of Neverbeen Universe' [1]
Category: The Untold Stories of Neverbeen Universe
Genre: Character Death, Ice Planet, Interrogation, Neverbeen Universe, Outer Space, Prison, Time Travel, time capsule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 15:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5095070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ishimaru_Asuka/pseuds/Ishimaru_Asuka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The timetraveler 'Tora' crashlands in the wrong past where he gets arrested and questioned for a crime he did not commit. And while he tries to get his capsule back he encounters people he would not have guessed to meet there on that icy planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Divergence

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there!
> 
> This is the first original work of my short story collection 'The Untold Stories of Neverbeen Universe'; there are eighteen stories in total and half of them are not published yet. And maybe, hopefully, you like this 'sneak peek' enough to want to read the others, too...
> 
> So have fun reading!  
> Asuka Ishimaru

**Divergence**

 

After coming to breathing was like inhaling oxygen made of razor blades; both keeping him alive and killing him slowly from the inside. He coughed chilly dust-shards.

And when at last he ripped his eyes wide open his vision was still a blur. It hurt to keep them open but a blink scraped over his retinas as if to scale them off, which hurt even more. However, the warm blood from his freshly bruised lids finally melted the icesheet so he slowly, slowly was able to see clearly again.

What he did see was not worth the view, though.

Hoarfrost was covering the walls of the barren prison cell as well as his clothing and hair. With some effort he rolled his worn out body onto his stomach. His muscles were stiff but he had to move or else he might lose his limbs to the cold. With cuffed hands his options were limited, though; hunger and cold had dried up his well of strength, too. Normally he would produce enough energy to charge fields of solar cells, but now he was totally depleted.

So on his ellbows he crawled, inch by painful inch, towards a ragged quilt which he noticed close by on the floor; it might mean his survival if he could keep himself at least a bit warm. However, even this small a motion exhausted his remaining resources further and left him panting clouds of rime.

Once he managed to pull the quilt over his body he curled into a ball. The good thing was, he was still shivering all over; thus it was not too late and his system had not yet cooled down too much to be saved. Which meant he might sustain the icy cold and get out of this dire situation alive.

How he ended up in this freezing prison cell in the first place seemed a rather despotic decision. As far as he was concerned, he had not quite broken any law.

Yet.

That is to say, if a foreigner in a foreign contraption popping up in the wrong place at the wrong time was not illegal.

He hadn't intended to come here, anyways; but somewhere something had gone terribly awry when his capsule had collided with a singularity and gone astray to crash-land here. Wherever and whenever here was.

At least one thing he knew for sure: this place wasn't earth, and this time wasn't the date he had set for his not-quite-as-merry journey through space and time.

And what a journey, indeed! 'Hope' he had called his capsule in desperate seek of a brighter past to a fairly dark future; Hope had failed him, though.

Or else he wouldn't have been convicted without trial for a crime, that neither was a crime nor one he had commited, and he therefore wouldn't be serving time he couldn't spare in a prison cell on a blasted planet so cold that even its summertime would set a new absolute zero.

Before long, and without being able to fight it, he fell asleep again beneath that rime-covered quilt.

* * *

 

However, soon he was rudely awakened and pulled to his feet. He would have fought and tried to escape but he was still too weakened to even stand on his own; maybe this was also due to the strange handcuffs, which had a little device strapped to them showing foreign characters on a tiny screen. He guessed, their meaning had either something to do with draining his deep well of golden strength or employing a momentarily higher gravitation on his body to keep him subdued.

Apparently they wanted to question him now. So he was dragged out of this barren cell and into a room that was at least not covered with hoarfrost. That didn't mean it was any more comfortable there, though. He was tossed into the centre where he stumbled and slumped to the ground once his legs gave in. And because it was slightly warmer in the interrogation room than in that cell he began to shiver so much more violently that his teeth were rattling and chattering in a fast staccato. Answering to their grilling seemed out of the question for now.

They say, all good things come in threes; and this was his third trip to the past. He originally wanted to follow history's lead, get stronger physically and mentally, find a new God, who he could actually have faith in, and then make a wish or two to better the worst in his time...

Seemingly three was not his lucky number.

Maybe he had just been so preoccupied with not changing the wrong past that they had managed to strip him off his only tools to set future things right, his impeccable powers and his timetravelling vehicle.

Thus, unless he regained both of them he was stuck.

"Hey! Answer me, you punk. Who are you?" the armored guy who would be the main interrogator snarled at him and grabbed his collar.

He intended to interfere as few as possible with this timeline so he chose to keep silent for now. Who knew what unforseen consequences even such a minute information as his name might cause...

However, his stubborness was not received well. And after a couple of brute punches and kicks to evoke an answer to that first question he changed his mind. In his current condition, as much as he hated to admit to himself, silence would take him nowhere but to his early grave. He coffed a cloud of fast freezing blood and blinked a glare at his captors.

"It's Tora," he decided to assume a pseudonym; they wouldn't be able to prove otherwise anyways, and hopefully he wouldn't change things too much if he didn't reveal who he really was.

"At last!" the interrogator laughed haughtily, "I knew you'd open your filthy trap under my watch. So, let's hear you sing some more!" That guy's enthusiasm was underlined by another pointless kick to his gut.

He would rather have roared and clawed at him and his cronies like a cornered tiger, but he also considered his powerless situation.

Thus, albeit reluctantly, during the following gruelling hours of punch-peppered questions 'harmless Tora' told them instead no, he didn't try to attack the 'Eternal Emperor', whoever that might be, and no, he neither intended to overthrow the system nor was he a spy sent by the underground opposition of some annected colonies and yes, his capsule was only a handmade starship and he came from a faraway place and just coincidentally happened to come across this frosty planet on his merry journey in search of other intelligent life in space than his own curious kind.

Somehow he must have been convincing enough since these highly militarized creatures seemingly were able to spacetravel themselves; besides, it was quite true that he was a half scientist. Either that, or they simply grew tired of not being able to smack different answers out of his mouth. By now he was dizzy enough to nearly slip up. However, he luckily managed to sustain until they gave up.

"Hmph! Put that trash back in his cell," Captain Kiwi, the fleet-fisted lead interrogator, snarled. Therefore he was dragged back through narrow corridors, which he clandestinely tried to memorize for eventual escape purposes, and into his well-trodden rimed confinements.

Once he was under lock and key again he huddled beneath the quilt and lay there motionlessly as if he was hibernating; he was simply alive and breathing.

* * *

 

How much time had passed until he was awoken from his torpor, quite literally, he could not fathom; might have been hours, could have been days... Without his capsule he was master of time no more, and its wondrous currents eluded him again.

However, the icily careening sound that came to an abrupt halt when something bumped against the hoarfrost-stiff cover had him perk up. Like a curious tortoise he effortfully and slowly craned his head from beneath the shell of his quilt and squinted into the semidarkness of his prison.

Next to his quilt-igloo there now sat a metal tray, and once he inched closer to inspect the contents of the two bowls thereupon he saw they were filled with what he assumed to be some kind of food. At first he was a bit reluctant and wary to try what they fed to their prisoners, but as soon as his stomach growled and howled painfully pitifully at the prospect of something, anything at all, to sate its ravenous hunger he quickly threw all of his suspicions about poison and drugs to the winds.

Almost frantically he wolfed down the half liquid, half lumpy mixture, which reminded him of some sort of icecream with the colouring of Maccha and a taste somewhere between rice pudding and minced kidney beans.

It made completely sense if he thought about it: in this freezing environment hot food would have cooled down too fast and turned into an almost adamantine ice-chunk with which you could easily smash in skulls, whereas meals with a core temperature of about 0°C and being just at the brink of turning solid cold were perfectly consumable due to them freezing over much slower and permitting to hydrate your body - a crucial trait to survival!

The second and smaller bowl was filled with dry and chewy morsels of what he figured were nutrient bars; and they tasted just as bad as the space food he had had to live on during his earlier travels with his capsule. And yet he and his constantly demanding stomach were glad today's menu included them, for he felt at least a bit less depeleted once his body had some energy to run on.

Moreover, it was good to know they didn't want him to starve to death... yet. He probably was kept for further questioning anyways.

"Let's see how round number two'll go. Maybe, I might get some questions of mine answered, too...", he murmured sullenly to himself when he huddled deeper beneath the quilt in order to take an additional power-nap to further replenish his resources.

As it turned out, he had been right, since he was abruptly and non too gently roused from his slumber; before he even knew what hit him he was forcefully dragged out of the cell with two bulky wardens iron-clasping his upper arms, a third one poking the muzzle of some sort of blaster gun to his spine and the fourth one leading the way. His feet barely scraped the icy floor as he slipped and stumbled forward in a futile attempt to keep up to their steely spiked stride, but his minor hardships in balance apparently didn't matter to his lovely escort.

Still a bit dizzy and disoriented from sleep he only belatedly realized they weren't headed to that barren room, which he had first been taken to for questioning, but towards an entirely different floor of this labyrinthine place. And it wasn't Kiwi, who awaited him there in what seemed to be a quaint tech or med lab, either...

Au contraire, the one facing him most likely did not specialize in the 'art of interrogation'; but an interrogation would surely unfold just as well, this time with a more precise purpose.

"Lieutnant Buru!" the quartet snappily saluted and with a curt nod from the apparent lead technician the wardens gradually and warily released their hold on their captive's arms.

"So this is the ominous wayward stranger from outside the Empire... Hard to imagine a single person could have made it this far," Lieutnant Buru observed and gave him a quick once-over with the distinctive glance of a true scientist, while he found himself too doumbfounded to answer.

"I hear you call yourself Tora. Have a seat," the bluehaired but otherwise surprisingly very humanoid Lieutnant stated with a slight gesture to a metal stool, whereupon heavy hands on his shoulders prompted him to follow Buru's invitation. "Now, leave us; I'll manage."

"But, Lieutnant Buru-," one of the wardens objected but was instantly shushed by his superior, who shot him an icy cold glare.

"Who do you think invented the G-enforced powerdrain-shackles and all the other gadgets that make your sore lifes easier, you braindead fools! If it wasn't for me you would've lasted only a few breaths until your lungs froze over on this blasted planet," the technician spat in a sudden breath of fire and brimstone that might set even this hell of ice aflame, "Now get the hell out before I make you my new guineapigs!" The four guards all but fled the Lieutnant's lab and left him to his fate with the termagant. He gulped audibly as he kept his wide eyes on the petite scientist.

From the looks of it Buru might not be a warrior of significant strength like the guys he had met so far, but she sure was a woman of distinct power in the hierarchy of this frosty Empire.

The most peculiar aspect of her, however, was that Buru wasn't supposed to be here... as in: she shouldn't ever be with the likes of Kiwi and this 'Eternal Emperor'; nor should she be this far from earth, from home.

The fact that he knew her, knew a different her, startled him and left him speechless at first. Either way, keeping silent was always the right move when Buru was in one of her famous fits of rage; you just didn't want to attract her attention then or rouse her anger even more, or else she might unleash her wrath unto you.

Riding out the storm he had time to take the Lieutnant in and compare her to the memory of the scientist back home.

She was so very young, he thought.

They ought to be of about the same age now, he guessed, while the Buru of his time was about twice as old. So, despite being in the wrong timeline, he had at least popped up at the very point in time at which he had intended to arrive, but still!

"What are you staring at? Never seen a female scientist, have you?" she suddenly startled him.

He shook his head and felt the heat rise to his cheeks and ears. "Sorry, m- ma'am," he all but stumbled over his murmur and averted his eyes in a sudden burst of shyness.

The petite technician propped her fists on her hip. "Sheesh! What is it with you guys and your pride? Can't take orders from a woman, even if she's twice more up the ticket punch. At least the Eternal Emperor, long may he reign, recognizes my capabilities to make me His chief technician," Buru complained and shot a glare at him.

"Again sorry, ma'am," he parroted quietly.

"Now, where were we?" The Lieutnant began stalking about her lab until she stopped and smirked wickedly at him. "Let's talk about that vehicle of yours, Tora!" she got down to brass tacks and lifted a brow with the knowing stare he knew so well.

Quite uncomfortable he slumped a bit on his stool. This 'interrogation' would become much worse than anything Kiwi could have done; even if she wouldn't apply any physical violence. Since instantly he felt like a little boy being scolded by his mother for having done something wrong.

However, he had to keep his secret no matter what. He had to try, at least. "Well, it's a handmade spaceship," he therefore reluctantly offered.

It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the complete truth either. It had sufficed when dealing with Captain Kiwi. As expected of her Lieutnant Buru didn't buy it, though.

"Don't take me for a fool! It's way more than that, isn't it?"

After all, in another time she had been the one to craft this capsule; and it had her handwriting all over it, in any detail, in any workmanship of her brilliant ideas. He could only hope there was more divergence in this timeline than her being with these villainous thugs and scoundrels and she wouldn't recognize her own doings.

"The Empire is about googol lightyears vast. This ship is clearly not built to last nearly as far a distance much less accomodate any passengers for as long a time; and if it was, you would long be dead before you even reached this place, especially if it was true that you came from a place outside the Empire. The engine is much too slow and the technology too outdated to accomplish such a feat," the petite scientist busted his ruse in a jiffy. "Even our fastest ships need months to travel from the capital planet of the Empire to the remotest outskirt-colonies."

"But there is some kind of device I've never seen before and I can't quite figure it out; its unknown purpose preys on my mind," Buru then produced a hologram from a scan she had done on his 'Hope', and zoomed in on the very machine that enabled him to timetravel. He gulped. "So, Tora from beyond the Empire, what is it? What does this apparatus do?" she stared him down with such a steely stare he had never seen on her face.

What should he tell her? What _could_ he tell her?

He instinctively wanted to trust her like he had always trusted and relied on her, the ingenious Buru he had left behind in his timeline, the Buru eagerly waiting for his return and hoping against hope he brought back the means to change their fairly dark future which had been lost in the quite brighter past.

But when he looked in her blue eyes there was no recognisability to the swinging, self-sufficient and helpful woman he knew. This Buru had become what the hostile environment had molded her into: she was as much a villainous creature and devout to this 'Eternal Emperor' as Kiwi and his cronies.

He couldn't possibly hope to appeal to the soft side of her that knew him; for this side didn't exist here.

She still was extremely clever. So he had to be careful what to disclose or else she would tear it apart with her weapons of choice, her wits and sharp tongue. "It gives off an impulse that enables me to jump large distances the engine would otherwise take years to travel," he therefore chose to both stick to a part of the truth and build on her observations.

"It eats up a lot of energy, though, so I can use it only a few times." Hopefully, this statement prevented her from trying it out herself. He neither wanted to be stuck here forever nor hand over this magnificent piece of technology to these dangerous people who were sure to abuse it for malignant means and destructive deeds.

"I see," she nodded, "that's why the tank is so low on fuel." Pensively she paced up and down the lab until she reached a conclusion. "Well, let's recharge it and give it a trial. I need to see how it works before I can rebuild it for production," Buru grinned, "It's strange such an outdated technology as yours can craft something like this, but still, maybe this thing can become a pivot device to the 'Eternal Emperor's' space fleet and the imperial trade company."

Inwardly he groaned and facepalmed. That was exactly what he had been worrying about! He certainly didn't want to be the one responsible for condemning galaxies and galaxies of innocent people to slavery to a violent, tyrannic and power hungry oppressor.

And yet... this might be his only chance of escape from this frozen hell in who knew how long.

So he let himself be dragged after the psyched up striding chief technician by Pitay and Caram, two of the wardens having brought him to Buru's lab, and into some sort of wind channel as large as a hangar.

And there beside some exploited hovercar and between some tubing, tools and construction robots it was - his capsule, his time machine, his 'Hope'! His heart leapt and lurched out of excitement and thrill.

While Pitay and Caram were keeping him in check, Lieutnant Buru ordered some technician to fetch the tank robot. Almost in a daze he watched the 'space ship' being refuelled and Buru fussing happily about his capsule.

So this was it, his chance.

The time machine was almost within reach and there were only these two wardens to hold him at bay. However, there was still the matter of these chains, that subdued his powers and subjected him to higher gravity; he couldn't possibly overcome and break free of them like he wanted to so much. He felt tired and heavy, his breathing was haggard and the rimed air stung icily in his lungs; keeping himself upright was already quite a strain to his depleted resources.

Then how to escape? His mind ran in circles so fast he felt a bit dizzy. Maybe when Buru and he jammed into the quaint cockpit would be the best shot.

So should he take her with him, then? To keep her from these hostile people, to bring her away from this nasty place where he didn't want her to be. He wanted to keep her safe.

Even though she was a different Buru and he knew she was the enemy here, he couldn't help feeling for her the way he felt for the Buru of his time, the Buru who he grew up with. Maybe, hopefully, she would change into the lovely person he knew if he took her. But these thoughts were just his hopes and memories going haywire.

And yet, there was no way about it: either he took the chance and left with her in his capsule or he would die in this place once his information on the time machine wasn't needed anymore.

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted when the doors to the wind channel slid open with a swishing sound and all eyes were on Kiwi, who stood there with an ashen twisted face. "L-Lieutnant Buru... Th- the... res-resistance..." he gargled between gushes of fast-freezing blood, his eyes lolled back in his head and he crashed to the ground like a freshly felled tree. He was dead.

Behind him the figure of a short man with the black mane of a wild creature and draped in battle armor and a blue fur cloak appeared. A feral grin curled his snarl and the black eyes spoke of bloodlust and strategizing intelligence. "I heard the slithering self-proclaimed 'Emperor' of yours got himself a curious little contraption. Let's have it then!"

"Beji, the traitor!" Pitay and Caram both exclaimed almost in sync, "How did you get in here?!" Then theuy hurried to ready their energy blaster guns and aim. But Beji was faster; with two well aimed shots he blasted their guns into atomic smithereens along with their heads. Their beheaded corpses fell in heaps, the wounds cauterized and charred black from the heat of the energy beams.

By a hair's breadth, quite literally, 'Tora' had managed to duck by just dropping himself to the floor and having the heightened gravity deployed by his shackles do its deed. He had been very lucky to evade a deathly blow, he fathomed, because he could still feel the searing heat on his scalp; his shoulder had been grazed, though, and the pain roared through him. At least, Pitay's and Caram's bodies formed a bit of a trench and hid him from Beji's further assault as the evilly cackling traitor blew up the around milling and beeping robots set to alert.

Buru screamed in alarm and ran for the control desk to call for reinforcements. "No, don't!" he wanted to shout and reach out to her, but he couldn't. His heart skipped a beat when, as if the world suddenly turned slow motion, he heard the sizzle of another shot and saw her frail form collapse before his capsule.

"No. It can't be! Not her." Shock had his body tremble, then rage overtook his mind and every thought was erased as he leapt over the dead bodies of Pitay and Caram, stumbled to his feet, fell again and lurched on his knees and hands towards where the prone Buru lay motionlessly. "No. Oh, no, no, no!" he murmured like a mantra while he turned her around and placed her head on his lap.

Guards were now filling in to stop Beji, who fought viciously like a wild beast against the stream of enemies jamming through the narrow doors. This setting gave the traitor the advantage, but the 'Eternal Emperor's' soldiers outnumbered him by far, so he was gradually pushed back. When he made for the capsule, one of the guards was clever enough to shoot it.

'Tora' tried to rub away the constant trail of blood leaking from Buru's mouth and close the literal hole in her heart Beji had blown, in vain, but still! Despair gripped him chokingly as he saw her dying in his arms without being able to do anything about it. Painful tears blurred his vision and stung as they froze on his cheeks as he sobbed.

Buru was lost to this world already. And so was he.

Because he would never come to be in this timeline nor would he see his own again; 'Hope' was lost. This world was twisted and wrong, oh, so very wrong. Of all people Beji, his would-have-been-father, had killed Buru, his mother of a different time.

His future faltered a second time as he watched the lone, defiant and proud warrior being struck by a multitude of energy beams, sustaining for a few more seconds and taking some more of his foes with him before Beji breathed his last breath through bloody bared teeth and crumpled to the floor of frozen blood.

And he, 'Tora' had caused it all!

His appearance in this time not only caused a divergence to the natural flow of this timeline, where his parents could have met under different circumstances; circumstances, where they lived, where they founded a different future of their own in a defiant corner of this world, where their only son existed...

His appearance also cut his own future, for he would never return to his waiting mother who was already grieving over her dead husband, and who now would be grieving over her forever lost in time boy, too.

* * *

 

Later that day, the incident was reported to the 'Eternal Emperor', and it read:

_'[...] the ominous space travelling contraption could not be recovered. Along with the leader of the Resistance, Beji, and the captive from outside the Empire, Tora, the following soldiers died in action:_

_Lieutnant Buru (Div. II-Tec 01),_

_Captain Kiwi (Div. IV-T &I 05),_

_Officer Caram (Div. V-Ward 24),_

_Officer Pitay (Div. V-Ward 57), [...]'_

Said Emperor blew quite a gasked, because the strange device in the space ship had been promissing and he had lost his beautiful and best technician by far. But after a while he was over all pleased: with Beji dead, the Resistance would soon fall apart and an ever itchy thorn in his eye would vanish into thin air. Chuckling to himself he toasted to this lovely day in the frosty Empire.

 

 


End file.
